grisly
gris·ly/ˈɡɹɪzli/adjective
grisly is spelled G-R-I-S-L-Y: 6 letters and 2 syllables (gris·ly). It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 39,832nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “grisly vs grizzly” about 50 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, grisly means “Horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in grisly?
| Letters | 6: G-R-I-S-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: gris·ly |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 39,832nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is grisly?
Grisly appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 39,832nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce grisly?
- US /ˈɡɹɪzli/
Grisly has 2 syllables, split gris·ly in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-grisly.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with grisly
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: grizzly (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: grizzly.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of grisly
- grislier comparative
- grisliest superlative
- griesly
- grislie
- more grisly comparative
- most grisly superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does grisly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying.
The photographs of the killings depict a grisly scene.
- 2
obsoleteObsolete form of grizzly.
adverb
- 1
obsoleteIn a horrible or terrible manner; in a terrifying way.
Wiktionary also records grisly as a common misspelling of another word in some uses; the senses above are its own.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Grisly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense horrifyingly repellent; terrifying, gruesome:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | épouvantable |
| German | grässlich |
| Portuguese | arrepiante, horrível |
| Spanish | macabro, horripilante, repugnante, espantoso, espeluznante |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does grisly come from?
From Middle English grisely, grysly, grissliȝ, griselich, grislich, from Old English grisliċ (“grisly, horrible; dreadful, horrid”), from grīsan (“to shudder with horror; to tremble, to be terrified; to make tremble, to terrify; to agrise, grise”) (unattested but implied in āgrīsan) + -lic (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘characteristic of, pertaining to’). The word may also be an aphetic form of Old English ongrislic, agrisenliċ, the past participle of agrīsan (“to agrise”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).